Brits Are Europe's Angriest People, Says New Poll But All We Do Is Bite Our Lips, Says British Association Of Anger Management, United Kingdom

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Men's health
Article Date: 18 May 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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A poll commissioned by comedy channel Gold and to be revealed shows that we Britons are the angriest people in Europe, losing our cool on average four times a day and topping even the Italians and French. And what do we believe makes us most angry? Queue jumpers.

Yet, according to the experts at the British Association of Anger Management (BAAM - http://www.angermanage.co.uk), we don't show our anger like our European neighbours and many of us don't even realise how angry we are. In what some would see as typical British stoicism, we tend to bottle it up.

BAAM's Mike Fisher says: "Historically we believe that anger is about screaming, shouting and hurling abuse but the recent Gold survey suggests otherwise; the statistics in the poll reflect that in Britain we have an incredibly passive aggressive culture. Instead of letting rip, we simply fume quietly and then take our anger out on ourselves or others."

BAAM's remit is to study anger and to offer help and education for those who need to manage their anger, giving Fisher great insight into how we get angry and what we do about it.

"Passive-aggressive behaviour can show itself in a number of forms such as becoming guarded, acting in a manipulative or controlling way, feeling incompetent about our abilities or obsessing and becoming neurotic," continues Fisher. "This behaviour is quite different from the common perception of anger as an aggressive behaviour, where we expect to see people acting in an aggressive, threatening or destructive manner."

Of the six thousand adults who took part in the survey, almost half (48%) of the British participants cited queue jumpers as their main annoyance, with traffic jams a close second (43%). Other reasons for Brits to see red was rude service in shops (38%), dealing with nuisance neighbours (37%) and people swearing loudly in public (33%).

Fisher concludes: "Most of the examples in the Gold survey reflect anger that is expressed in a passive-aggressive form and hence many people in the UK are unaware that they may have an anger problem because of this confusion."

BAAM runs various programmes throughout the year, delivered as long weekend sessions or series of workshops and seminars spanning ten weeks. BAAM's renowned anger 'guru', Mike Fisher, offers anger management coaching in central London, East Grinstead and, soon, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham, helping people of all ages, persuasions and professions. For further information on the full range of BAAM's services, please visit http://www.angermanage.co.uk

About BBAM

The British Association of Anger Management (BAAM) was established in 1999 and is based in East Grinstead, West Sussex. BAAM is recognised by the NHS, BUPA, the court authorities and the BACP and its services are available to anyone who is dealing with their own or another person's anger.

The organisation has worked with over 13,000 people, including many international celebrities, and currently receives on average 8,000 website visits per month, with up to 25 telephone enquiries per day.

BAAM's Mike Fisher is a renowned anger 'guru' and author of the popular book, 'Beating Anger', with 21,500 copies sold since its launch in London, Cape Town and Johannesburg in March 2005. Fisher was the specialist on BBC's 'Can't Stop Losing My Cool' programme about angry people, and has been a regular guest on radio and TV slots discussing anger and stress management.

He also works at the London Anger and Stress Clinic - a subsidiary of BAAM which specialises in working with children and young people.

About the poll

The poll was conducted for UK comedy TV channel Gold by 72 Point, interviewing 6000 people across Europe and finding that where Britons are the most angry, Scandinavians are the most calm, with just 1 bout of anger every five days.

An online press office featuring backgrounders and/or print-quality images for publication is at http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/office/q99169.php

Source
British Association of Anger Management